Attack of the 50 Foot Bug

Bees do get out in the winter January 3, 2011

Posted by Stacey Rodgers in Uncategorized.
add a comment

Last week the daytime temps jumped up into the mid 60’s. I was happy to see the hive quite active and cleaning out dead bees and other trash that had accumulated over the past few weeks.

Ants and Aphids November 2, 2010

Posted by Stacey Rodgers in Uncategorized.
add a comment

Images taken from a bush in my parents back yard this past summer.

Outside and inside view June 26, 2010

Posted by Stacey Rodgers in Uncategorized.
add a comment

Recently, I’ve added another super which is the orange section near the top of the hive. Due to the mid 90’s temperatures we are experiencing, the lid of the hive is propped open to allow better ventilation. The middle yellow super is just about full of honey. It probably weighs about 60 lbs. Unfortunately, this is honey that I can’t touch. This is what they will use to get through the winter.
I opened the hive this morning to check things out. Here is a frame that is in the process of being filled with honey. This one of the few photos from inside the hive that I’m happy with. The difficulty of taking good photos while dressed in bee garb can’t be underestimated. Plus, I was concerned about getting

Keep the back patio light turned off. June 25, 2010

Posted by Stacey Rodgers in Uncategorized.
add a comment

If I don’t keep the back patio light off in the evenings, I end up with this. Bees flying toward the light and getting separated from their hive all night. They’re usually very lethargic in the mornings after sitting out all night. Usually a small drop of honey is enough to wake them up and they fly away within 2-3 minutes.

Parasites! June 24, 2010

Posted by Stacey Rodgers in Uncategorized.
add a comment

I really shouldn’t be surprised to see this but, it’s still disappointing. This is the varroa destructor mite. Actual size is about 2 millimeters across. This mite was found on a larva that was removed from the hive. It’s a fact of life with bee keeping and unless you take preventative measures they will eventually destroy a hive. I don’t think the infestation is bad right now and I haven’t decided what to do yet.

Large Field Ant May 13, 2010

Posted by Stacey Rodgers in Uncategorized.
1 comment so far

Large field ant.

A small robber fly May 11, 2010

Posted by Stacey Rodgers in Uncategorized.
add a comment

At first glance, I thought this was a fruit fly or something. When I got the image onto the computer, I then spotted it’s prey. It’s some sort of robber fly and is about 5 mm long.

First Attempt at HD Macro Video May 10, 2010

Posted by Stacey Rodgers in Uncategorized.
add a comment

This worked out better than I expected. I used my wife’s new Canon T2i and a macro lens to shoot this. The depth of field was really difficult to deal with. The bee kept moving in and out of focus as it was scrubbing on the front of the hive. The video was shot at 1080p but, Flickr only supports 720p. So, it’s been degraded a bit but, it’s good enough for the Internet. Initially, I was skeptical to the idea of HD video a digital SLR but, after shooting a few videos over the weekend, I convinced that it’s the wave of the future.

Strange behavior at the hive May 6, 2010

Posted by Stacey Rodgers in Uncategorized.
add a comment

One of the things that I’ve noticed recently is that the bees sometimes like to cluster and hang out on the front of the hive. This behavior is called bearding. This helps with regulating the temperature of the hive. If the hive is less crowded, air flows through it better. Right now, my best guess is that there are probably 15,000-20,000 bees in the hive. I am beginning to get a little concerned with the amount of sunlight that is hitting the hive during the day. A good bit of sunshine in the morning to wake them up is fine but, I may have to provide some additional shade fairly soon.

There is one other thing that is interesting. When the bees are clustering on the front of the hive they perform a behavior that looks like scrubbing. They will obsessively scrub the landing on the hive with their front feet. I’m going to try and capture a video of it soon.

I’ve recently added a shallow super to the hive. It’s the top yellow section pictured above. The bees have just about finished drawing out the frames with comb in the hive body. The larger orange section is the hive body which contains the queen and brood. I want to keep the queen down in the hive body to prevent the mixing of honey and brood. I’m using a queen excluder to do this. It provides enough an opening for the worker bees to pass through to the top areas of the hive but, is too small for the queen to pass.